he said to me.

I got mad den kaze he was tawkin' 'bout Mis' Polly, so I didn' say
nothin'. I jus' set. Den he pushed me off de step an' say if I didn'
dance he gwine shoot my toes off. Skeered as I was, I sho done some
shufflin'. Den he give me five dollers an' tole me to go buy jim cracks,
but dat piece of paper won't no good. 'Twuzn nothin' but a shin plaster
like all dat war money, you couldn' spend it.

Dat Yankee kept callin' Mis' Polly a white headed devil an' said she
done ramshacked 'til dey wuzn' nothin' left, but he made his mens tote
off meat, flour, pigs, an' chickens. After dat Mis' Polly got mighty
stingy wid de vittles an' de didn' have no more ham.

When de war was over de Yankees was all 'roun' de place tellin' de
niggers what to do. Dey tole dem dey was free, dat dey didn' have to
slave for de white folks no more. My folks all left Marse Cain an' went
to live in houses dat de Yankees built. Dey wuz like poor white folks
houses, little shacks made out of sticks an' mud wid stick an' mud
chimneys. Dey wuzn' like Marse Cain's cabins, planked up an' warm, dey
was full of cracks, an' dey wuzn' no lamps an' oil. All de light come
from de lightwood knots burnin' in de fireplace.

One day my mammy come to de big house after me. I didn' want to go, I
wanted to stay wid Mis' Polly. I 'gun to cry an' Mammy caught hold of
me. I grabbed Mis' Polly an' held so tight dat I tore her skirt bindin'
loose an' her skirt fell down 'bout her feets.

'Let her stay wid me,' Mis' Polly said to Mammy.

But Mammy shook her head. 'You took her away from me an' didn' pay no
mind to my cryin', so now I'se takin' her back home. We's free now, Mis'
Polly, we ain't gwine be slaves no more to nobody.' She dragged me away.
I can see how Mis' Polly looked now. She didn' say nothin' but she
looked hard at Mammy an' her face was white.

Mammy took me to de stick an' mud house de Yankees done give her. It was
smoky an' dark kaze dey wuzn' no windows. We didn' have no sheets an' no
towels, so when I cried an' said I didn' want to live on no Yankee
house, Mammy beat me an' made me go to bed. I laid on de straw tick
lookin' up through de cracks in de roof. I could see de stars, an' de
sky shinin' through de cracks looked like long blue splinters stretched
'cross de rafters. I lay dare an' cried kaze I wanted to go back to Mis'
Polly.

I was never hungry til we waz free an' de Yankees fed us. We didn' have
nothin to eat 'cept hard tac